Turntable

Kevin Hunt - The Electronic Jungle and The Electronic Jungle, May 18, 2012

The annual Record Store Day has almost single-handedly revived the vinyl LP, with sales reaching almost 4 million in 2011 after dropping below 1 million five years ago. For last month's Record Store Day, 300 new-issue vinyl LPs arrived in independent record stores across the country at a wholesale cost of almost $6 million. Despite the intense retro-cool factor, vinyl remains a small player in a digital world. Sometimes vinyl becomes part of that world when the music stored on an LP's analog grooves is digitized and transferred to a computer.

Kevin Hunt - The Electronic Jungle and The Electronic Jungle, May 18, 2012

The annual Record Store Day has almost single-handedly revived the vinyl LP, with sales reaching almost 4 million in 2011 after dropping below 1 million five years ago. For last month's Record Store Day, 300 new-issue vinyl LPs arrived in independent record stores across the country at a wholesale cost of almost $6 million. Despite the intense retro-cool factor, vinyl remains a small player in a digital world. Sometimes vinyl becomes part of that world when the music stored on an LP's analog grooves is digitized and transferred to a computer.

A house on Talcott Notch Road was broken into between 11 a.m. Sunday and 3 p.m. Monday, police said. Entry was gained by breaking a window. Taken were a television, 12 compact discs, 30 cassettes, a turntable, a compact disc player, tuner, tape player and speakers valued at about $2,500.

Let's not even wait till the end of the year. Let's just declare the Crosley Revolution, a AA-battery-powered portable USB turntable shaped like a Presto burger maker, 2010's most bizarre new product. Even if it's not an original. Hop aboard the Wayback Machine for a joyride back to the early 1980s — archaeologically, the Mullet Period — when Sony's Walkman portable cassette player towered over all other portable technology. The response, perhaps stylus in cheek, for followers of the still vibrant but fading analog/LP/vinyl/turntable was Audio Technica's Sound Burger.

A knowing friend of A.J. Soprano appeared starstruck when he saw one. Carrie's boyfriend on "Sex and the City" said he couldn't live without one. A DJ wouldn't be caught dead without one. And if you're under 30, it's retro cool. This might not qualify as a renaissance for the venerable turntable -- that generation-ago all-analog favorite for music playback -- but it does give hope to the legions of people who refuse to let go of their ancient, idle vinyl records. Keep them as a monument to the past, if you must.

Sometime between 1927 and 1935, the original Columbia Junction roundhouse was torn down and bulldozed into the six pits where steam locomotives were once repaired and stored. The turntable that spun the locomotives into one of the roundhouse's six bays was later scrapped to feed the blasts furnaces of World War II. In a steady drizzle Wednesday, Andover resident Robert Hassett backed a hand rail car out of one of the bays of the rebuilt roundhouse, its squeaky fingernails-on-chalkboard wheels coming to a halt in front of a hand-operated "armstrong" turntable.

For every recruit to the latest mini-resurgence of the vinyl LP, there might be a dozen people who'd sooner transfer all their old, musty records onto a computer before dumping them in the curbside trash. The newest turntables combine both technologies, turntable and computer, that convert LPs into iTunes-ready digital files and also play records conventionally through an audio system. These turntables, like Ion's $200 LP 2 Flash, hope to attract anyone getting into, or out of, vinyl.

There's no mistaking the Type A audio personalities at Rega Research Ltd. of Essex, England -- they're thinking all analog all the time. The digital revolution began 15 years ago with the first compact disc players. Rega, renowned for its turntables, took shelter in an analog bunker and stayed there, a conscientious objector. Rega kept making its turntables, even as the market dwindled, clinging to the vinyl LP while happily watching the world pass by at 33 1/3 rpm. About a year ago, Rega finally emerged from analog's darkened chamber.

Many of the volunteers who created and operate the Connecticut Eastern Railroad Museum had model railroad layouts as children. Now grown up, but still young at heart, they're working on a life-size version. The museum, located on the banks of the Willimantic River, consists of the original Chaplin Station, the Groton Freight House and a New Haven Railroad section house from Willimantic. By summer, the museum's "drawing card" will be ready: A replica of the Columbia Junction Roundhouse.

Q: Is it true a plasma HDTV starts to lose its picture brightness in about four or five years? -- John L. Oliva, Orland Park, Ill. A: The latest plasma televisions typically have a half-life of about 60,000 hours, which means they will lose about half of their brightness in those 60,000 hours. So, theoretically, if you watch TV four hours every day, the set would last about 18 years. The technology is still young, though, so there's no guarantee it will last even close to that long.

For every recruit to the latest mini-resurgence of the vinyl LP, there might be a dozen people who'd sooner transfer all their old, musty records onto a computer before dumping them in the curbside trash. The newest turntables combine both technologies, turntable and computer, that convert LPs into iTunes-ready digital files and also play records conventionally through an audio system. These turntables, like Ion's $200 LP 2 Flash, hope to attract anyone getting into, or out of, vinyl.

Let's step into the time machine with all the other retrosexuals out there and put together a classic stereo system updated for the 21st century. Of course, it has to be stereo. That's two channels, or, in today's digital age, a 2.0 system. The centerpiece of our system is a retro knockout, the Outlaw Audio RR2150 receiver. Outlaw, an online-only company (outlawaudio.com), pays loving tribute to art-deco table radios with triple-tiered control panels and yet another, gently arched.

Sometime between 1927 and 1935, the original Columbia Junction roundhouse was torn down and bulldozed into the six pits where steam locomotives were once repaired and stored. The turntable that spun the locomotives into one of the roundhouse's six bays was later scrapped to feed the blasts furnaces of World War II. In a steady drizzle Wednesday, Andover resident Robert Hassett backed a hand rail car out of one of the bays of the rebuilt roundhouse, its squeaky fingernails-on-chalkboard wheels coming to a halt in front of a hand-operated "armstrong" turntable.

Q: Do you know of a device that can transfer vinyl records to iTunes so it can be loaded on an iPod? Also, is there a similar device for cassette tapes? - Garry Kearnes, Tinley Park, Ill. A: Ion Audio ( www.ion-audio.com) makes USB turntables that may look like basic LP spinners but also transfer vinyl records directly to your computer. The LP Dock, one of the latest, also includes a dock so you can copy directly from the LP to you iPod. Of course, it also transfers LPs to a PC or Mac via a USB connection.

Q: Is it true a plasma HDTV starts to lose its picture brightness in about four or five years? -- John L. Oliva, Orland Park, Ill. A: The latest plasma televisions typically have a half-life of about 60,000 hours, which means they will lose about half of their brightness in those 60,000 hours. So, theoretically, if you watch TV four hours every day, the set would last about 18 years. The technology is still young, though, so there's no guarantee it will last even close to that long.

We built a new kitchen a few years ago, and one of the best features we added was a walk-in pantry with more than 40 feet of deep shelf space. As the carpenters worked their magic, I dreamed of an idyllic tidiness that was impossible in the cramped kitchen we were replacing. But within a few months, naturally, the pantry became a crammed-full mess of cookbooks, cereal boxes, light bulbs, soda bottles, recycling bins, screwdrivers and everything else that became so tempting to toss behind the doors.

Let's step into the time machine with all the other retrosexuals out there and put together a classic stereo system updated for the 21st century. Of course, it has to be stereo. That's two channels, or, in today's digital age, a 2.0 system. The centerpiece of our system is a retro knockout, the Outlaw Audio RR2150 receiver. Outlaw, an online-only company (outlawaudio.com), pays loving tribute to art-deco table radios with triple-tiered control panels and yet another, gently arched.

Volunteers at the Connecticut Eastern Railroad Museum want their museum to one day be considered the Sturbridge Village or Mystic Seaport of railroading. On Sunday, they took a step in that direction by dedicating a roundhouse constructed last year and opening the museum for the season. There's much to be done and museum officials figure it will be another 20 years before the museum is complete, said Mark Granville, the museum's vice president. A host of buildings for restoring and maintaining locomotives and rail cars as well as track are planned.

A knowing friend of A.J. Soprano appeared starstruck when he saw one. Carrie's boyfriend on "Sex and the City" said he couldn't live without one. A DJ wouldn't be caught dead without one. And if you're under 30, it's retro cool. This might not qualify as a renaissance for the venerable turntable -- that generation-ago all-analog favorite for music playback -- but it does give hope to the legions of people who refuse to let go of their ancient, idle vinyl records. Keep them as a monument to the past, if you must.

They take their place on stage as if they were a string quartet, or more likely a jazz ensemble. The instruments before them, though, are turntables. With well-chosen records, deft manipulation of knobs and the ability to speed up or slow down discs well beyond the intended 33 1/3 rpm, these artists called DJs create a new kind of music never intended by those on the grooves. Performing en masse, or in turn, they create a collage of sounds that, in spite of the latticework of layers, still kicks a beat true to the hip-hop style they're all a part of. Despite the bedrock role of DJs in the creation of rap music and hip-hop culture, only recently has their artistry stepped to the fore -- in films like "Scratch" and especially in the rise of DJ-only performing groups like the X-Ecutioners.